Chapter 23 #2
“Don’t make me ask a third time.” His hand leaves my lapel to close firmly around my throat, and I’m too stunned to stop him. Caught by the intensity of his gaze and the take-no-shit tone of his words.
My fingers are already reaching for my belt, pulling the loop through the buckle before I can stop them, like I’m responding to him without thought.
But that’s not right. Walking in here, practically naked?
Stripping for him? My idea, yes… but all my fears, all my insecurities are returning.
Getting in my own head, not letting him in.
He’s the one with the string of women in his past, and all the experience I don’t have.
I’m the one with two failed relationships. I don’t even know why he wants me.
My hands still, unable to complete the simple task that really isn’t so simple. And I’ve failed in this, too.
“Very well,” he says, and spins me around, pulling me back against his chest, his hand still encircling my throat. “On reflection, I’d prefer to do it myself anyway.”
“Declan—”
His other hand falls to my belt, finishing what I’d started. In seconds, he’s unfastened it, and the coat falls open. I barely get a chance to reach for the sides before he grasps the collar and yanks it down, stripping it half off my body before I can clutch at it.
“Nice try,” he murmurs, and works it over my arms, pulling it free despite my attempts to stop him. I’m left naked save for my heels, held against his chest, my thighs pressing to the arm of his couch.
“This isn’t—”
“Don’t talk right now,” he says, lips brushing against my ear. “I have you where I want you for the first time in days, and I’m going to take full advantage. You can protest if you want, but it won’t make any difference. I already owed you a punishment, and that was before you punched my leg.”
“I’m sorry—”
“I told you not to talk.” His grip shifts to the nape of my neck, pushing me forward. The couch is in the way, and I have no choice but to bend from the waist. He’s pressing up against the back of my legs, forcing me over, my ass lifting and my head and body meeting the cushions.
Could I be any more vulnerable? This isn’t good. Not good at all.
“Declan, please—”
“You don’t listen, do you?” His hand slaps into one ass cheek, driving the breath from me. The sting comes a few seconds later, warming my flesh.
“Fuck! Ow.”
“The correct response is ‘one.’ That’s the only talking I want to hear.”
“The fuck it is. Get off me.” I’m getting angry again. I try to push myself up, but his hand presses into my back. He has the advantages of weight and leverage; I have neither. And his knee and hips are pressing into me, keeping my legs pinned.
“One,” he says mockingly, then his hand smacks in again, on the same spot, and I gasp. “Can I get a ‘two’?”
“You can get a ‘fuck you.’” I’m still struggling to push myself up, and still making no progress. He’s too damn strong.
The bastard chuckles. “Seems you’ve not been spanked before.”
He’s not wrong. I’ve hardly been anything before he came along.
“And I’m not going to be now, either.” I’m done with this ‘punishment.’ I’m done with him, with this apartment, with his sex games. And it’s my own damn fault for coming here like this. “Let me go.”
Exactly what I said to him when he had his hand on my arm.
“No.”
Exactly what he replied last time. Damn it.
I try again, reaching for reasonable with an effort. “I don’t want this, Declan. I want you to let me up.”
His fingers dip between my legs, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.
His touch is light, teasing, and so unexpected.
I thought he would spank me again, not touch me, and I’m not fast enough to bite back the whimper that slips out.
My ass is raised, and my heels put me practically on my toes.
I couldn’t be more exposed to him if I’d…
turned up naked beneath a fucking rain coat.
“Smooth,” he murmurs in surprise, playing his fingertips across my labia. “I don’t think you’re being honest with me,” he says, his touch gliding over my pussy. “Your mouth says one thing, your body says another.”
“My body doesn’t control me,” I say through clenched teeth.
“Your mouth can lie; your body can’t,” he replies, like that’s an excuse. “Do you know how wet you are?”
Fuck.
But I was wet before I even knocked on his door. Wet when he gripped my coat, and stared at me the way he does. Wet when he stripped me and bent me over, even if I didn’t want it.
“God, I could take you like this,” he breathes, pressing his hips against me. I can feel how hard he is through his jeans.
“I said no.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” he assures me. I don’t get a chance to feel any relief or disappointment, because his hand smacks into me again, on the same damn cheek, making me gasp. “That’ll come later, when I’ve finished here.”
“Finished punishing me,” I spit out, ignoring the way my body tightens at his promise. “And you can’t even do it evenly, you bastard.”
Declan chuckles. “Can I get a ‘three’? No? Pinned helpless and still trying to provoke me? Such a little hellcat.” Another spank. The right side of my ass is on fire. I can’t help the cry that escapes. “Four?”
“…Four,” I gasp out, if only because it might stop this shit sooner.
“Good girl,” he says, and the words affect me far more than they have any right to.
It’s not the first time he’s called me that, and the worst part is I’ve missed it.
How fucked up is that? Like it’s the acclaim that’s been missing all through my life until this point.
Bent over his couch, my ass in the air, unable to stop him.
The next smack lands, but immediately his palm strokes over my burning flesh, rubbing away the sting, and my eyes flick wide at the different sensation, then flutter closed.
It’s soothing. No, more than that… it’s intimate.
It’s gentle, it’s caring. I see light behind my eyelids, and I can’t help my moan.
I’m suddenly aware of the soft couch beneath me, rubbing against my skin. Did I writhe? Please tell me I didn’t.
“Besides,” he murmurs, his touch still playing over my ass, “I’m just warming you up.”
Warming me up?
“For what?” I probably shouldn’t have asked.
“You’ll find out,” he replies, voice far too calm. “To your other point, the reason I’m hitting only one side is that I’m pinning you. Promise me you’ll stop fighting, and I’ll balance it out for you.”
Declan makes it sound like he’s doing me a favor. But now that he’s said it, I realize he’s not wrong; his hips are pressed into the left side of me, holding me against the arm of the couch.
Now I have a choice: agree to keep still for him, so that he balances his punishment, or keep fighting and he’ll keep going on that one cheek.
Bastard.
“Fine, I’ll stay still,” I grind out. “Get it done, then I’m going home.”
His hips shift away, but his hand stays on my back, like he doesn’t trust me. “We’ll make it a nice even ten, and then we’ll see what happens next.”
I don’t get a chance to argue before the next spank drives me into the couch, landing on my left cheek. I gasp in a breath, give him a whimper he doesn’t deserve, and clench my fists so tight I can feel the nails digging into my palm.
“Let me tell you what I think,” he says conversationally, fingers trailing lightly across my ass, then dipping between. I barely get a chance to feel it before the next smack lands, echoing through his apartment.
“I’m all fucking ears,” I mutter, clenching my jaw against the sting.
“Seven.” He pauses to let the count sit. “I think my little hellcat is more scared of herself than she is of me.” His fingers dip down again, stroking softly, making it so damn hard to focus on his words. “I don’t think it’s me you’re fighting, I think it’s yourself.”
“Bullshit.” Except he might be right.
The next spank lands as soon as I try to speak, and this time I can’t muffle my cry. His palm strokes the sting away immediately, and my cry becomes a moan. I can’t stop that either, damn it. This isn’t fair. He’s not just punishing me; he’s tormenting me.
“Eight,” he says casually. “I think you don’t know what you do to me. The way you fight me even now, bent over my couch with your ass in the air. Furious and wet at the same time.”
I tense at that. I’m not furious… am I?
But there’s no denying I am wet. Why is his spanking turning me on?
“Do you know how much I want to be inside you right now?” His voice deepens with lust, the ninth spank lighter, yet my ass burning so much it still pulls a gasp from me. “How much I want to not be inside you, and take my time drawing it out, every excruciatingly pleasurable moment of it.”
“Sounds like it’s you that doesn’t know what you want.” That might not have been smart, but I couldn’t help myself.
Declan laughs as he lands the final spank on my left cheek. “Ten. You’re provoking me, Hellcat. Is ten not enough? Shall we make it twenty?”
“No, thank you.”
“I think we should,” he says reasonably. “You can’t keep your smart mouth in check, and I told you not to talk, except to keep count, which you’ve done precisely once.”
Asshole.
Yet he has a point. And he’s completely ripped through my defenses, my protests, giving me no choice. What more can he do?
“I’m sorry.”
Declan leans over me until his mouth is by my ear. “Not yet you’re not. But you will be. Oh, before I’m done with you, you will be.”